Author
Topic: a running list of reasons why we are fucked and there is no hope. (Read 4850 times)

The list is getting pretty long, so I am going to start writing it down.

1. The problems society faces are complicated, nuanced, and typically have no obvious or satisfying solution that benefits everyone. Unfortunately, our ability to compromise is basically dead, and everything about modern communication centers around bite-sized ideas. We are at a rare point in human development where the tools we have developed are exactly the opposite of what we need to solve our problems.

2. Speaking of our tools, we have designed the Internet: a miraculous platform for communication that transcends all historical barriers to the flow of information and ideas. We have then done the eminently Human thing and used this platform to segregate ourselves morally, philosophically, and along every other fault line we can think of, creating new barriers to the flow of ideas. Now we find ourselves in disposable communities, surrounded by people we suspect of not belonging. It's not exactly a recipe for the unity required to take on large systems of oppression or violence.

3. We refuse to face real problems, because we're too busy being righter and louder than everyone else, and being honest about our problems introduces the risk that we might not be as correct as we think we are. We're subconsciously aware that we're full of shit, but are scared of admitting it.

4. The systems we have built to automate society have grown bigger and more powerful than us. They're more complex than our mental models of them, and they are just efficient enough to fool us into thinking we don't need to maintain them. They also rot from the inside out, so by the time we notice a problem, it's way too late to fix it.

5. The lies we used to tell our children about what made civilization work are now the fables grown-ass adults tell themselves they must abide by in order to keep it working. This is ... not advised.

6. We have convinced ourselves that the way things are is the way things must be. We are incapable of dreaming or thinking big about the things we need to change in order to survive as a species. It is absolutely outside the scope of most people's universes to even consider, for example, post-scarcity economics. This is despite the fact that we actually have the technology to make it work, or the fact that we need to make it work if we're to have any hope.

7. Everyone seems to have a collective sense of impending doom. This is not mass delusion, it's a finely-tuned evolutionary mechanism. The alarms are ringing, but we are just monkeys, so our solution is to screech louder than the alarms until they shut up. This is also a finely-tuned evolutionary mechanism. Nobody said natural selection had any particular preference for intelligence.

8. The kinds of progressives who are currently being laughed out of global politics because of their "crazy ideas"... are not nearly progressive enough to do any good, even if they got everything they asked for. Despite half of the planet being consumed with Hollywood blockbuster entertainment about superheroes and spaceships, it turns out nobody actually has any imagination.

8. The kinds of progressives who are currently being laughed out of global politics because of their "crazy ideas"... are not nearly progressive enough to do any good, even if they got everything they asked for. Despite half of the planet being consumed with Hollywood blockbuster entertainment about superheroes and spaceships, it turns out nobody actually has any imagination.

It's kind of worse than this. In the last 6 months I can't recall hearing a new "progressive" idea. When was the last time you heard one? The next one you're likely to hear about is equal rights for Whatever nominal fetish or sexuality you want to invent. Being progressive is no longer about advancing everyone, just your own tiny and inconsequential agenda. Seriously, hit me with an idea that's not either been talked to death a billion times over for decades. If you can pull out anything more helpful to everyone than "Equal rights for furries" I'm all ears.

I am not implying V3x or Howl are furries. I am insinuating it.

Logged

Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

8. The kinds of progressives who are currently being laughed out of global politics because of their "crazy ideas"... are not nearly progressive enough to do any good, even if they got everything they asked for. Despite half of the planet being consumed with Hollywood blockbuster entertainment about superheroes and spaceships, it turns out nobody actually has any imagination.

It's kind of worse than this. In the last 6 months I can't recall hearing a new "progressive" idea. When was the last time you heard one? The next one you're likely to hear about is equal rights for Whatever nominal fetish or sexuality you want to invent. Being progressive is no longer about advancing everyone, just your own tiny and inconsequential agenda. Seriously, hit me with an idea that's not either been talked to death a billion times over for decades. If you can pull out anything more helpful to everyone than "Equal rights for furries" I'm all ears.

I am not implying V3x or Howl are furries. I am insinuating it.

This is why I don't have much use for progressives. They are generally just a fur pile of special pleading.

8. The kinds of progressives who are currently being laughed out of global politics because of their "crazy ideas"... are not nearly progressive enough to do any good, even if they got everything they asked for. Despite half of the planet being consumed with Hollywood blockbuster entertainment about superheroes and spaceships, it turns out nobody actually has any imagination.

It's kind of worse than this. In the last 6 months I can't recall hearing a new "progressive" idea. When was the last time you heard one? The next one you're likely to hear about is equal rights for Whatever nominal fetish or sexuality you want to invent. Being progressive is no longer about advancing everyone, just your own tiny and inconsequential agenda. Seriously, hit me with an idea that's not either been talked to death a billion times over for decades. If you can pull out anything more helpful to everyone than "Equal rights for furries" I'm all ears.

I am not implying V3x or Howl are furries. I am insinuating it.

No, you're right. Identity politics and equality are important of course, but people act like that's all there is left to fix. And everyone sees the world through the prism of whichever persecution most directly affects them. I can't speak to the urgency of these things because I don't encounter much outright persecution. It's possible I am doing the same thing by seeing everything through the prism of economics, but it really seems that the systematic financial repression of "commoners" reinforces every other kind of oppression. But if you talk about economic liberation, you're pinned as someone who doesn't care about identity politics. Everyone thinks we have to choose one or the other, and that's fine for individuals but not when it gets to the point of actively tearing down any movement that isn't *your* movement.

The elite in this country are still straight white "Christian" males, and yes, they do work to keep it that way. But I think they use ethnic, racial, religious, and gender divisions as tools rather than as ends in and of themselves. Our leaders use Fascist tactics, but they aren't really Fascists. They're Feudalists building a system where peasants pay tribute to the new nobility first on economic divisions, and to each other secondarily based on those social divisions.

Our leaders use Fascist tactics, but they aren't really Fascists. They're Feudalists building a system where peasants pay tribute to the new nobility first on economic divisions, and to each other secondarily based on those social divisions.

Well stated!

I became aware of this fairly recently. Unfortunately, I don’t know what those few of us who are both aware of and upset by this political movement can do to stop it.

Our leaders use Fascist tactics, but they aren't really Fascists. They're Feudalists building a system where peasants pay tribute to the new nobility first on economic divisions, and to each other secondarily based on those social divisions.

Well stated!

I became aware of this fairly recently. Unfortunately, I don’t know what those few of us who are both aware of and upset by this political movement can do to stop it.

As for what we can do to stop it, allow me to direct your attention to the title of this thread.

While every word of this is true, Reason 1 explains why having this piece thrown out into the media for public consumption would simply result in "TL;DR"-type responses, or none at all.

I try pointing out shit like this (Although, not nearly as eloquently and thoroughly as you've done, here) all the time, but no one wants to read anything for longer than a few seconds at a time. It's honestly one of the most frustrating aspects of this list, in that it prevents discussion that could solve the other items in the list.

Logged

Listen carefully. I don't have much time, and I only have 462 characters left. I'm a scientist from Area 52 (Area 51 was used to draw attention from Area 52, where the aliens were ACTUALLY stored) who was working on neural interfacing with networked devices. In an experiment gone wrong, I accidentally uploaded my mind to the internet. In the 2 seconds I had before my mind scrambled itself with the world's network traffic, I was able to store this snippet in this random internet signature. If you're reading this, let the world know tha

While every word of this is true, Reason 1 explains why having this piece thrown out into the media for public consumption would simply result in "TL;DR"-type responses, or none at all.

I try pointing out shit like this (Although, not nearly as eloquently and thoroughly as you've done, here) all the time, but no one wants to read anything for longer than a few seconds at a time. It's honestly one of the most frustrating aspects of this list, in that it prevents discussion that could solve the other items in the list.

Yeah, this. It's really at the point now where the only "hope" that really exists is that maybe we'll actually have some kind of nuclear Armageddon that wipes out 95% of humanity, and maybe whoever picks up the pieces will do a better job next time around.

They won't, though.

And civilization hasn't been all bad. After all, it gave us Snuggies and internet forums, so at the very least, it made a few lives a little more comfortable than they might have been without it. And there were a few generations in a few places for a while that really got to live it up. That's small comfort to the billions of people who have consistently held the short end of the stick, I know, but statistically it was better than nothing. And if not, don't worry, we'll get to see how nothing compares soon enough.

While every word of this is true, Reason 1 explains why having this piece thrown out into the media for public consumption would simply result in "TL;DR"-type responses, or none at all.

I try pointing out shit like this (Although, not nearly as eloquently and thoroughly as you've done, here) all the time, but no one wants to read anything for longer than a few seconds at a time. It's honestly one of the most frustrating aspects of this list, in that it prevents discussion that could solve the other items in the list.

Yeah, this. It's really at the point now where the only "hope" that really exists is that maybe we'll actually have some kind of nuclear Armageddon that wipes out 95% of humanity, and maybe whoever picks up the pieces will do a better job next time around.

Unlikely. The places most likely to avoid being nuked back into the dark ages are those too unimportant to target due to never having exited the dark ages in the first place. Like the bible belt and flyover states; if you were a head of state would you waste a nuke on what is essentially an uninhabited wasteland already?

Logged

Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.a plague on both your houses -Mercutiohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.LovecraftHe who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzschehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1QYou are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -DeteriorataDon't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago

While every word of this is true, Reason 1 explains why having this piece thrown out into the media for public consumption would simply result in "TL;DR"-type responses, or none at all.

I try pointing out shit like this (Although, not nearly as eloquently and thoroughly as you've done, here) all the time, but no one wants to read anything for longer than a few seconds at a time. It's honestly one of the most frustrating aspects of this list, in that it prevents discussion that could solve the other items in the list.

Yeah, this. It's really at the point now where the only "hope" that really exists is that maybe we'll actually have some kind of nuclear Armageddon that wipes out 95% of humanity, and maybe whoever picks up the pieces will do a better job next time around.

Unlikely. The places most likely to avoid being nuked back into the dark ages are those too unimportant to target due to never having exited the dark ages in the first place. Like the bible belt and flyover states; if you were a head of state would you waste a nuke on what is essentially an uninhabited wasteland already?

While every word of this is true, Reason 1 explains why having this piece thrown out into the media for public consumption would simply result in "TL;DR"-type responses, or none at all.

I try pointing out shit like this (Although, not nearly as eloquently and thoroughly as you've done, here) all the time, but no one wants to read anything for longer than a few seconds at a time. It's honestly one of the most frustrating aspects of this list, in that it prevents discussion that could solve the other items in the list.

Yeah, this. It's really at the point now where the only "hope" that really exists is that maybe we'll actually have some kind of nuclear Armageddon that wipes out 95% of humanity, and maybe whoever picks up the pieces will do a better job next time around.

Unlikely. The places most likely to avoid being nuked back into the dark ages are those too unimportant to target due to never having exited the dark ages in the first place. Like the bible belt and flyover states; if you were a head of state would you waste a nuke on what is essentially an uninhabited wasteland already?

Well, yes, I would. But I'm a terrible person.

I meant to put yourself in the mind of the kind of pinhead that becomes a real head of state

Logged

Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.a plague on both your houses -Mercutiohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.LovecraftHe who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzschehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1QYou are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -DeteriorataDon't use the email address in my profile, I lost the password years ago